The reason for food protection.
How do I teach my dog to Protect food?
Some dogs protect food everywhere, from mild to severe levels, perhaps due to the owner’s different reactions to the incident (some people think that beating him will make him afraid so that you are afraid and he is also afraid, and the more you beat him, the more fierce he becomes, the harder he bites you, or various mysterious punishment rituals), or due to the behavior of other dogs snatching the food.
Therefore, this article will first explain why dogs are protective of food (reasons), and after understanding the reasons, the next article will tell you how to properly prevent dogs from being protective of food.
Let’s start by tracing the possible causes of food guarding against puppyhood
Many young puppies are given plenty of milk by their mothers before they leave their mothers, but once they leave their mothers, they are not properly cared for by bad breeders or pet owners, and if they are not given enough food, they can easily create a future guarding factor for the puppy.
A simple example: some pet store staffs selling puppies will often tell owners to use plastic spoons to calculate about 3–4 spoonfuls of food, and that feeding too much will make them too big (because pet owners know that people love to have miniature dogs nowadays) so don’t feed them too much… Many people will really listen at this point (Huh!?). How come everyone is so obedient as long as they can save money ……) These words are good to hear, do not take them seriously, how can a Shiba Inu be raised to the size of a Chihuahua! You will only raise a malnourished dog, and then spend more money to take it to the vet, the loss is not worth it.
The following is a list of the first reasons for food guarding.
When you give too little food, not enough puppy to get enough nutrition; or long-term lack of animal protein, may also let puppies produce hidden hunger, and lead them to long-term hunger when they do not eat enough will easily cause two phenomena:
1. malnutrition, resulting in many physical diseases, thin bones, the need to spend a lot of money in the future medical treatment + health maintenance.
2. to the people produced by the attack behavior of food, it will eat when the meal will gobble, a careless touch it will be fierce or even be bitten (families with children need to be more careful), or to protect the empty bowl has been eaten to the owner angry when you want to put away the bowl will rush up to bite you.
The typical food guard: wrinkle nose + show teeth
The second reason for food guarding.
Another reason that can lead to food guarding is that the dog has been disturbed by other dogs while eating (whether it’s a meal or a snack), resulting in a bad experience with eating, and slowly the food guarding behavior will spread from the house to the outdoors, from a specific breed of dog to all breeds of dogs to the point of no return!
Two or more dogs should be fed separately
Food guarding can be a major or minor condition.
Usually, the guarding starts with a low growl at each other (human and dog), then progresses to an empty bite, then a real bite, and finally a bite that starts indiscriminately when there is a stressful situation.
Therefore, we should pay attention to the dog’s nutritional intake (sufficient animal protein) from childhood, and if the family composition is more complex, such as other animals or children, the elderly, elders, and even family members who do not like dogs, as the primary caregiver role we must pay more attention to the dog eating time and place.
Each dog may develop food guarding behaviors, which should be eradicated as soon as possible to avoid the need for more effort, time, and money to educate the behavior in the future.
